Chainmail looks so cool, how hard is it to get started?
In actuality, in its basic form, everybody has done it. They just don't realize it. Ok, so everybody might be a bit of a stretch, there are still newborns who cant, but just to make sure, go grab a piece of paper and some tape. tear the paper in 1/2 long ways. now make a ring, tape it shut. Make another ring through the first tape it shut. congratulations, you have now made chain mail...(insert big laughs here.)
Haha. I am sure that is not what you wanted, let's try again. The first time I ever worked on metal chainmail was in high school, I had some scrap copper wire I pocketed off of a demolition job I was helping with, and I borrowed my dad's pliers out of the fishing tackle, and I started fiddling with it. My rings were inconsistent, and they were not clean circles. the cuts were awful as they were made with pliers, but I was still able to make a 2 by 3-inch sheet of copper chain mail. and I was quite happy with it.
So in short, all you need to get started is the will, a pair of pliers, and some scrap wire you find laying around
Do you think making your own rings is easier than buying and why do you prefer one over the other?
I catch a lot of flack for it, but its worth it (to me) as opposed to having to get all the tooling to make my own rings. I buy my rings pre-cut. By buying my rings I can get started immediately on a project saving me time and thus, my customer money, as opposed to spending hours coiling, and then cutting rings. Cutting my own rings would add the cost of my products due to the use of bits or saw blades that eventually wear out, and the lubrication to extend the life of those doomed parts. Buy buying I also am able to get what I need rather than having a warehouse full of stock. As it is I can already fill about 20 cubic feet with my stock, and I still want more! There are sizes, colors, and materials I don't have, that I want; but if I was to make my own, to be cost-effective, I would have to make batches of about 100K+ rings of each color and size. Why do that if I can buy them and can get 500 at a time?
On the flip side, if the only material you worked with was steel, with the goal to make armor, you don't need saw cut rings. In addition, you would be using tens of thousands of the same ring. For this purpose, if you have the ability, I would recommend making your own. the reason for this is for 500 or even 2500 rings, you're not going to save much money making your own. Now say I was to make my self a full shirt using simple 4 in 1 pattern with standard 16g 5/16 rings, that is about 30K rings. That is about 30 lb of 16 gauge wire. in rings that is about 350 (not adding in shipping), I can get a 20 lb spool for about $95 (not adding shipping), if that gives an idea of the savings. However you still would need to find a way to coil and cut your rings, there are plenty of youtube videos on that, personally, not my thing
oh, you could probably get fencing wire from a hardware store, that would probably save you even more as then your not paying to sip
Do the rings come in different colors?
Yes, the way the color comes out is dependant on the base metal, as is the color options. for instance aluminum, you can have any color you want, but the process is very long and requires
some powerful chemicals and a large setup. for titanium, you can get a rainbow of colors, but they are going to be more muted and will still keep a metallic look as opposed to a painted/coated look which aluminum has, this can be done with much simpler and safer process than aluminum. steel is rather lack luster with its color spectrum, but it can still have some neat colors pulled out of it. copper tends to come enameled. and i don't understand a thing about niobium, but that is a really sexy looking material, from what i have seen, you get the metallic look of titanium, but with a nice shine to it as opposed to the muted colors
Where should I get supplies?
there are a lot of places. however here in the US, the best supplier I have found is the Canadian company http://theringlord.com there are a few others around, but none of them can compare to the variety, or the price, though they might be able to beat the quality. One of the downsides the ring lords have, is due to being such a large shop, making hundreds of thousands of rings a day, every once and a while you get a bad ring. but I have ordered at least 15K rings from them, having only found maybe 30 I didn't like is pretty good in my book.
theringlord.com
What kind of material are the rings made of?
If you make your own, anything you can get your hands on.
from the ring lords. I could probably say the same. but I will list them out for you
Aluminum (colored or bright)
Brass
Bronze
Copper (colored or not)
Galvanized Steel
Carbon Steel
Stainless Steel
Black Stainless Steel
Titanium
Niobium
Plastic
Nickel Silver
Sterling Silver (92.5%)
Fine Silver (99.9%)
14 karat Gold fill (thick gold over brass)
10 karat gold (solid, not filled)
I have heard of people making their own out of mokume gane. I think they are crazy
What are the best rings to use if you choose to buy them?
what are you wanting to make? what is it going to be used for? amtgard annoys me with its chainmail rule. titanium is by far the best for field use. it is lighter and stronger than stainless steel. if you are going for full points, go with stainless if you are doing trinkets or jewelry that you want colors? go aluminum. if your making jewelry to impress and you get paid up front, go with silver or gold. there are other materials but I have yet to work with them so I don't know how they behave. that being said I haven't worked with silver or gold, but if you're running out onto the field in either, I am going to take your armor away from you and scavenge it for materials
What is dragon mail, it sounds so fancy?
Ah dragon mail! How I love you and hate you...dragon mail, in my opinion, is best done as a micromole. meaning really tiny rings. the thing with dragon mail is each layer is ot connected to the next but rather the one after. it is a capture weave. the way this works is you have 2 ring sizes, one is smaller than the other. so small that it can pass inside the other without touching. you then use this ring to connect 4 rings, while sitting inside another large ring, 2 on each side.a simple example of how to imagine this, take 5 equally sized hoolahoops, lay them down in 3 layers, 2, then 1, then 2 with the 1 being in the center. now, without rearranging the hoolahoops, take a rope and tie the 4 together at the center. Pick any 1 of them up and they will all follow. Even though you have not connected anything to the center ring, it is connected via captureYeah, I see you all going home and making hoolahoop dragon scale walkways now. your children will be so proud
What can you make with it?
If you have the patience, you could make a full suit of armor out of it. though if your looking for points, micro maille might not be the way to go I don't know many champions who will go for that. it can make a very nice bracelet or necklace. I think I have seen it used as in a chainmail fish. like most weaves, the limit of use is your imagination
What 3 projects would you recommend for a beginner?
First, thing I recommend is making a 4 by 4 sheet of 4 in 1. Keep expanding on it as needed. It might be aggravating at first, but as soon as it clicks you will have what you need to do anything else. the understanding that it's just a pattern. now keep expanding on it to get the second point. everything has a use, you just have to find where you want to use it. for me, I like a challenge, so I went with an owl. it taught me a new weave (1/2 Persian) and it gave me an end result more than just a stip of useless rings. at this point, you have made a trinket and a piece of armor. next, I recommend something to show off your new hobby. Be it a necklace, bracelet, or a short chain to connect your trinket to your keys, something to be able to passively show off. people will ask about it. and trust me, when other people are excited about your work, you get excited to make more.
Jewelry or armor?
I question you back...are you looking to sell, or to unwind? If you are looking to sell there is a larger jewelry market than there is an armor market, given people are using more guns and less swords these days. There was a police department that just announced they were buying like 20 new suits of chainmail for their officers. this is to protect them from being knifed on the streets. If you're looking to unwind, armor is very repetitive, it allows you to work without having to think about it. its a great way to blow off some steam on a bad day, or calm down when over stimulated.
Please supply a supply list for those just getting started:
Of cour, e it all depends on what you're doing.
for the 4 in 1 (the first item I recommended)
i recommend going to the tool box, grabbing 2 pairs of pliers, and getting about 400 (one bag) 16g 5/16 stainless steel rings. by the end of those 400, you will know if you enjoy it. if your not sure then I have to ask, why didn't you quit earlier :P
if you made it past that test, either get more of those rings though i would recommend a new pair of pliers. some without teeth.
https://theringlord.com/cart/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=69
I would recommend 2 of the KXPLIERWIDE, the ones that are $7 each. they will save your work. now i have heard arguments that a curved tip will save your hands, but i donlt know how accurate those are.
I personally love my Xuron Bent Nose Pliers KX486. they have a small point and a 90 degree curve, this allows me to work much smaller rings.
whatever you get, make sure they are toothless as teeth will mar your metal.
if you want to try other projects: https://theringlord.com/cart/shopdisplaycategories.asp?id=10&cat=Projects+%26+Kits has lots of kits with very well detailed instructions to help walk you through the process. You can also find some on Etsy. there are even some chain weavers on twitch who will sell you their pattern and show you how to make them. just remember, nothing in the world is free. don't ask for handouts or you will be ban from those channels, I got my self into trouble once asking what the ring size was before i understood this, I was just trying to get an idea of what size the project was so that i could get help in improving my tooling.
Projects & Kits - TheRingLord.com Chainmail Jump Rings jumprings Scalemail Jewelry Supplies and Wire
Projects in a box ! Conveniently bundled Jump Rings, tools and instructions. Great gifts
theringlord.com
What projects would you recommend for a more advanced chainmail artisan?
This is actually difficult for me to answer. i haven't picked up much that is a changeling, rather its just time consuming. Though there was a company at altamont mall who rated their projects. the most difficult thing for me is trying to figure out "what looks good" I liked dragon mail, so that was the third piece i worked on. first was a scale mail cape, second was an owl, third was the tie, that is now fidget cloth. however in order to do this i needed to get my bent tip pliers so that i could hold the rings properly. however if you dont want to jump off the deep end of insanity, and or have not yet sold your soul to chaos, I would recommend going with baby steps, to learn a capture weave, I would recomend doing a helm wave. if your crazy, add scales and make a tea candle flower. try making Persian and Byzantine necklaces/bracelets. those while still, patterns are a bit more complex, though the difficulty is the first inch, until a pattern is stabilized it can be very aggravating to figure out what rings are what. If armor is more your thing, try going from 4 in 1 to 6 in one, kings maille (8 in 2). try weaving at a 45-degree angle, or the Japanese weaves. scales are always fun. it doesn't really matter where you go next, just as long as your still enjoying it.
Jewelry or armor?
It truly depends on what you enjoy.
Favorite things about chainmail and how you fell in love with crafting with it. chainmail is like a cat, it is stubborn and when you first get it, it will bite and scratch at you. but with time it will be able to take you out of reality and let you focus on only it, forgetting everything else in the world. there are no worries when working with chainmail, no politics, no religion, so long as I have supplies no money, its just me and the rings, i don't have to worry about hurting anything feelings, hell i can even ignore food. and as a fat man who loves food, that's one hell of a feat.
Chris Parton is a full-time software developer by day, and the self-proclaimed Merchant Peasant of Nod Rama on the weekend. He does this though in an effort to reflect his opinion. in the grand scheme of things, he knows he is nothing special. By accepting this as fact, it allows him to ignore most common stresses and just have fun. Granted his carefree-ness can be a bit annoying to most, but to him, life is to short to stress about the small stuff. Have fun, laugh a lot, and take it one day at a time, just don't do something you cant recover from.Oh and ladies, don't forget he is single!